I used Mozy for a while. Took almost two months – running 24×7 – just to get the initial copy of all files out there.
But I’ve since quit that and moved to a two-tier backup:
1. Onsite Apple Time Capsule + Time Machine
2. Weekly mirror of the hard drive using SuperDuper! which is then kept off-site.
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Why two tier?
The mirrored drive I keep offsite is sufficient for keeping my data safe. It’s all I really need. But there’s more to it than keeping your data merely safe. I feel it also needs to be accessible. And that’s where Time Machine comes in.
If I accidentally deleted an email, how do I get it back?
The old-school way of getting it back would typically involve finding your backup copy of the email. Where’s that? For most email apps, the emails themselves aren’t stored as individual files in the filesystem with easy-to-read names that jump up and wave at you. No, they’re stored in a database. So… to restore that one email, I need to get that backup database copied over… if I can even find it, if I can get the permissions right, if I don’t neglect to bring over any other ephemeral files that might also be necessary.
And then what do I have? I have the old database plugged in. I need to find that one email, export and save it out somewhere safe. And then plug the original database back in. Yuck! How many non-IT people can do that? Or even understand the words used to describe it?
Time Machine provides accessibility. It works inside your apps. So… if I’m inside the Mail app, click the Time Machine icon, then it brings up the swoopy space view so I can virtually go back in time to the point I deleted that email and restore it directly.
And not just for email, but in iCal, in Address Book, iPhoto and other database-stored information as well. And, of course, it works regular old files at the filesystem level as well.